JEANNIE KEVER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
May 26, 2011

Kindergartner Alondra Landeros takes a sip of milk at Youens Elementary in Houston. The census shows that key urban areas in Texas are younger, mostly due to the Hispanic population.

Texas remains a strikingly youthful state, offering the potential of a large future workforce powered by a surging Latino population and a continued tide of Asian immigration, but also presenting challenges for the future.

The number of Asian Indians almost doubled over the past decade, surpassing the Vietnamese population to become the largest group of Asians in the state.

New Texas data from the 2010 Census will be released today, offering a few surprises and also confirming what demographers have predicted for years.

Texas is the second-youngest state in the nation, something that offers advantages and caveats for the future. Only Utah has a lower median age.

But even Texans are growing older, a phenomenon most starkly illustrated in the Panhandle, the Hill Country and West Texas.

The state's median age — meaning half of residents are older, and half younger — is 33.6, substantially lower than the national median of 37.2.

It is even lower in Harris County, at 32.2, and drops to 28.3 in several counties along the Mexican border.

More than half of Texas counties have higher median ages than the national figure, he noted. The major urban areas are younger, thanks to their Latino populations.

The youth boom is a good thing, at least potentially.

"We are seen as a state of youth and vigor," said Jeff Moseley, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. "We have families with young children, young singles. People are voting with their feet."

Unlike parts of the Midwest and New England, Texas will have plenty of people to replace aging baby boomers.

But there is a downside.

The huge number of young children - there were almost 2 million children younger than 5, more than any other age group - indicates more demand for education, from preschool through college.

Plans to cut state public education funding by $4 billion over the next two years raise more questions.

"We're in trouble," said Luis Salinas, a sociologist at the University of Houston. "People are not (more likely) to stay in school if their classrooms are bigger. They're not going to finish college faster if there are fewer classes and less financial aid. We're going to have the numbers, but those numbers aren't going to be employable."

Coming for opportunity

That isn't a new issue, although the state's declining revenues add urgency to the chorus.

Nor is the increasing diversity a surprise. But the latest Census data, which provides more information on the age, race and ethnic subgroups of Texans, offer additional details to help state leaders prepare for the future.

"When people say Texas is diverse, historically they meant we had some African-Americans and a large Hispanic population," Murdock said. "But increasingly, we have a large Asian population, a large Hispanic population, a large African-American population. We are diverse in nearly all ways."

The Asian population, while just 3.8 percent of the state total, has almost doubled, to 964,596 people.

The number of Asian Indians has surpassed that of Vietnamese, who have comprised the largest share of Asians in Texas since the end of the Vietnam war.

Future changes remain to be seen, but Karl Eschbach, a former state demographer who is now at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said it's clear the population will continue to grow, as will the demand for services.

"It's a circle - a younger population has a higher birth rate," he said. "Population growth helps drive economic growth. On the other hand, that puts a burden on the state to educate the younger population and that younger work force.